(The Center Square) – Independent voter registrations grew nearly exactly as did the overall total for the most recent seven days reported in North Carolina.
Democrats grew by eight, Republicans one, and the unaffiliated bloc 5,548 of the 5,604 total. Posted on Saturday – 178 sleeps from Election Day – by the State Board of Elections, the trends are emblematic of the last month as analyzed by The Center Square.
Unaffiliated party registrations are 39.6% of the state’s 7,763,333 total at 3,072,684. Republicans (30%) have 2,325,256; Democrats (29.8%) have 2,314,501; Libertarians (0.6%) have 46,315; and the Green Party (0.06%) has 4,577.
In the past five weeks, the total registrations has gone up 28,002. The shares are a 27,984 increase for unaffiliated registrations, 339 increase for Republicans and a loss of 425 for Democrats.
More women (3.8 million) than men (3.2 million) make up the electorate. Whites (4.9 million) are the majority race; Blacks (nearly 1.5 million) and Hispanics (more than 353,000) are second and third, respectively.
For context in the change of landscape, at what is generally considered a landmark Election Day in 2008, the state’s total registrations were 6,264,733. Those unaffiliated numbered just under 1.4 million (22.2%) while Democrats’ 2,866,669 had 45.8% share and Republicans’ 2,002,416 was a 32% share. Barack Obama became the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to carry the state, by a mere 14,177 votes of more than 4.3 million cast.
The state’s lone U.S. Senate seat was won by Democrat Kay Hagan, and the 13 U.S. House seats were divvied up eight Democrats and five Republicans.
The Council of State went 8-2 to Democrats. Incumbent Republicans’ Steve Troxler and Cherie Berry remained commissioners of agriculture and labor, respectively. And the General Assembly was 30-20 Democrats in the Senate and 68-52 Democrats in the House of Representatives.
In the Nov. 3 election, North Carolinians will choose a U.S. senator, all 14 members of the U.S. House, and all 170 members of the General Assembly.
